Next Previous Contents

3. Configuration

3.1 User management

You can manage the users simply by editing /etc/passwd and, if your system supports it, /etc/shadow. Any user existent in /etc/passwd can connect to the FTP server if he has a usable password and meets certain configurable criteria. Having anonymous users is possible by setting a configuration variable called ANONYMOUS_USER to yes. PAM is also supported.

3.2 The configuration file

The global structure

In the "global" structure, you can assign values to configuration options. The syntax is like the following: 

global {
  name1="value1"
  name2="value2"
}

User structures

There are also user structures, in which you can override the global settings for particular users. Example: 

global {
  name1="value1"
  name2="value2"
}
user foo {
  name1="value3"
}
If the user foo is logged in, name1 will be value3. If another user is logged in, name1 will be value1. name2 is always value2.

Group structures

You can also define options for groups of users. It is just as it would be for one user, but you can put more than one user in a group. You can also put system groups into them by using the @ character. Example: 

group foo,bar,@baz {
  name1="value1"
}
This options affect the users foo and bar and every user who is in the system group baz. A supplementary membership is sufficient.

Directory structures

You can set options which affects only the users who are in a certain directory, or in any subdirectory of it, recursively. Note that you must put these structures inside the global, user and group structures. This way, you can also override directory-specific settings for particular users. Example: 

global {
  name1="value1"
  directory "/foo" {
    name1="value2"
  }
}
user bar {
  directory "/foo" {
    name1="value3"
  }
}
In this example, name1 will be value3 if the user bar is in the directory /foo. It will be value2 if another user is in the directory /foo. In any other case, it will be value1.

An explanation of the name/value pairs is in the example configuration file supplied with bftpd (if you are not upgrading, this file has already been copied to /etc on your system). Modify it so that it fits your needs. The defaults should be OK though.

Next Previous Contents